Hey guys, I had a few people ask me about the Pulse, and i have seen a lot of posts on here asking about it so i figured id give you my review on it.

I am a rookie so i can only give you my opinion based on new guy experience. I am pretty solid on accuracy and my canopy skills have been good enough to satisfy my instructors so i could downsize. I am in no way setting an example of how to downsize. Most will say i downsized too fast. I can agree with that.

The only reason I did this was because i bought this new rig with the pulse 170 and I wanted to get on it as fast and safely as I could get away with.

Chrisl i agree with you. and im not trying to be cocky at all. I dont want to pile in any more than the next guy thats for sure lol.. Every pilot is different. I have watched my student buddies fly and Im doing better than average i think.

Instructors (5) have told me to play safe and ill be ok. They even made me jump the 188 one more time in front of all of them to watch before they let me jump my rig.. I intend to take it easy and not push it. Most of my pulls are going to be around 4-5k and i am going to really get to know this canopy up high.

Im not going to jump it in sketchy winds and so on.. Ill play Safe.

Its a great canopy and to be honest. it not much different than the 188 so far.

And I thought I was being aggressive with my plan to downsize soon. Out of interest, how much have you experimented with the slow flight and stall characteristics of all the canopies as you have downsized?

Thanks Chris, As a rule from 1000 I only make 90 degree turns at most. i try to make them as flat as possible also.

Quagmire. the first thing i do is my control checks then i play with the risers. try to rear stall and so on. I find the flare and stall and figure out if i needed to wrap toggles a bit and so on.. (Student gear is pretty worn out i find and the flare is usually pretty weak without wrapping the toggles a little bit.)

I flare and stall the canopy more than i turn it probably. BUt from 5k you have lots of time to do both. When im satisfied that i know the flare point then ill try front riser chin ups lol and have fun with it.. all well above 2k obviously.

Is it just my inexperience? Is this not WAY too soon for him to be jumping a 1.1 WLing?

"Instructors (5) have told me to play safe and ill be ok." "...and to be honest. it not much different than the 188 so far."

To the OP. There is a substantial performance difference between those two canopy sizes. If you can't even sense that? You're making me very nervous for you. You know the saying Shit Happens, right? What happens when you have to land off in a small backyard one day? What happens when someone cuts you off on final?

"I wanted to get on it as fast and safely as I could get away with."

As fast as you could get away with? Why? If you rent a 190 for another 50 jumps? Your new 170 will still be there to jump. If you don't? You might not still be in one piece to jump it. Why take such a chance?

Thanks for the concern pifly. I agree its pretty quick. As i had said the pulse is different than the 188 for sure but it wasnt a major adjustment. The speed is very similar and the turns were pretty close also. Yes the 170 is faster but i was expeting more. They have designed the pulse to be a little docile..Its not like the Sabre. you should jump one and see for yourself if you get the chance. I was pretty surprised at how mellow it was.

My DZ is on open fields.. Nothing but open space to land in. its very safe out here. I always make sure im first to land or last. everyone is always looking out for eachother here, and a plan is made before each jump.. I usually have at least one or 2 coaches on every load and we always watch out and talk about landing patterns and so on. I have a great resource of knowledge available to me out herre its awesome. Our DZ is like a small family, everyone is looking out for each other it seems.

I know shit can go wrong. but that could happen just as easy under any canopy? I honestly dont feel this canopy is going to make the game breaker difference between it and the 188 in a high pressure situation. but then again what do i know.

All i can do is play safe, and learn my canopy as best as i can. isnt that how we learn?

just learning here not trying to argue at all i appreciate all the advice i get here and respect everyones opinions.

I'm only weigh about five pounds more than you. I spent last season jumping a 190 Sabre2 or Pulse. The switch to a 170 S2 was a large one. Even if I had plenty of open fields surrounding the DZ for landing off. I wouldn't have wanted to be under a 170 at anywhere near 23 jumps... I'm not trying to preach. I view my A as only being an extended Learner's Permit. I just don't want to read about you in the Incidents forum. That Pulse can catch you by surprise quite easily. My first hundred jumps threw a few surprises at me... Could you not squeeze a 190 Pulse into your container? Rent one for a month or two. Why such a rush to downsize? I hate seeing people get hurt.

A new jumper like yourself should get familiar with what it takes to do flare turns, braked turns, and doing an accuracy type sinking in type landing. The ability to do these will allow you to save yourself when you get into a jam. Getting into a jam is more likely to happen as your jump numbers increase and you jump at the WL you will have with your pulse.

Cool thanks ill keep at it. been practicing the flat turns and riser stuff. ill now work on this set of tasks! thanks sundevil.

Flat turns, right. The techniques are called different things by some.

I wouldn't want to encourage you to actually do a complete "sink it in" accuracy type approach and landing, just get familiar with what it feels like up high. If you ever really need it, you will also need a really good PLF along with it. There is no need to pound in like that just for practice.

Listen to your instructors, what this thread has is some guys with <500 jumps giving you advice. Your instructors that know you and can give you the best advice. These other guys should be keeping their mouths shut and trying to listen to the people that have survived a few years and a couple thousand jumps.

They have designed the pulse to be a little docile..Its not like the Sabre. you should jump one and see for yourself if you get the chance. I was pretty surprised at how mellow it was.

That's funny I have about 80 jumps on a Pulse 190 at the same wingloading and I found it to be fast as hell (for my experience back then) It was the closest canopy to the Stiletto I ended up moving on to. It wasn't sensitive to harness input on opening like the Stiletto, but it was a flat flying, fast as fuck in the toggle turns, quick recovering SOB, with tremendous front riser pressure just like the Stiletto. That Pulse was hell of fun.

I won't bash you because I would be a hypocrite. I was a fast starter too. I have since slowed down because I was lucky enough to walk away from a mistake or two. It is what you don't know that you don't know that will bite you. No offense but at 23 jumps there is a whole lotta stuff that you don't know that you don't know. Be safe.

Listen to your instructors, what this thread has is some guys with <500 jumps giving you advice. Your instructors that know you and can give you the best advice. These other guys should be keeping their mouths shut and trying to listen to the people that have survived a few years and a couple thousand jumps.

You have made 23 canopy landings….no more than 6 on the same canopy. After 3 jumps on your 170 you feel confident enough to post a review of the canopy. You really don’t have a clue do you?

In reply to:

I have watched my student buddies fly and Im doing better than average i think.

Just another noob with superior skills…..right.

Last year around 15 jumpers died landing their canopies and all of them had at least 15 times as many jumps as you do. Hell one had 10,000+ and another 15,000+. You really think you are better than they were?